Perfect Books Ottawa
258A Elgin Street K2P 1L9 Ottawa, ON, Canada

The first month of 2021 should inspire us to reflect on the year that has passed, and imagine different and better realities for our future. Here is a small collection that might do the trick: Mediocre by Iljeoma Oluo... On Fire by Naomi Klein Strongmen by Ruth Ben-Ghiat Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria Take Back the Fight by Nora Loreto How to do Nothing by Jenny Odell Having and Being Had by Eula Biss Wuhan Diary by Fang Fang

Copies of Shuggie Bain by Douglass Stuart are finally in stock! Come pick up your paperback of the 2020 Booker Prize winner

Just because of curbside pickup doesn’t mean you can’t browse our shelves

Check out this article we’ve been featured in! - "All of a sudden we were hiring people and trying to keep up," said Jim Sherman of Perfect Books on Elgin Street in Ottawa, whose business quickly pivoted to selling books online and offering to deliver them.... "We went from zero to I don't know what within a week."

Hey readers! I know many of you have been asking how Perfect Books will be affected by the lockdown started on the 26th. We will be commencing curbside pickup on Monday, December 28th to ensure you can buy your books and use your gift cards at a safe distance. ... We will, however, be closed from the 25-27th this weekend. Please watch our website for updates on curbside pickup as we figure out all of the finer details. Happy holidays!

Thank you! Ampersand Inc.

Just some fun fiction recommendations from your friendly neighbourhood indie bookstore ‘Monogamy’ by Sue Miller ’Earthlings’ by Sayaka Murata... ’When No One is Watching’ by Alyssa Cole ’Infinite Detail’ by Tim Maughan ’I’ll I Ask’ by Eva Crocker ’The Secret Lives of Church Ladies’ by Deesha Philyaw ’The Once and Future of Witches’ by Alix E. Harlow Descriptions of the books in each corresponding photo!

As the weather gets colder and the restaurants start closing down, we will have to resort to our own kitchens for sustenance. These fruitful new cookbooks are full of healthy, hearty and ever-flavourful recipes, as well as some insightful food writing (thank you David Chang) Here are some straight from our shelves! ... Descriptions are in each corresponding photo.

There’s a special kind of torture to read such a beautiful travel guide during a pandemic. But it can also quench our thirst for wanderlust. ‘Accidentally Wes Anderson’ gleefully arrays the awe-inspiring products of Wally Koval’s Wes Anderson fan-photography Instagram project @accidentallywesanderson Discover the most interesting and idiosyncratic places on Earth. Inspired by the unique vision of director Wes Anderson’s films, this book travels to every continent to tell th...e extraordinary and unexpected true stories behind more than two hundred stunning locations. This book is a perfect diversion for film fans and globe trotters alike.

Displays are an art; they can be appreciated for their beauty and message.

When Phil Jenkins walks through a city, he looks for its story. He believes in taking the city personally - its history, its evolving culture, its place in the world, its moods and its personalities - and writing about it. 'As I Walked About' is a collection of essays Jenkins wrote for the Ottawa Citizen from 2003 to 2017. ... In 'An Acre of Time', Jenkins offers the history geological, anthropological, personal, political, botanical of an acre of land in downtown Ottawa now known as Le Breton Flats.

I don’t know about you but I’m tired of zoom. Writing handwritten cards to friends and family can take us back to our screen-less roots and bring us closer with the ones we love. Come take out your pens and check out these whimsical handmade cards made by @charlesvansandwyk from Vancouver.

Chris the Part-Time Evening Book-Monkey has compiled a list of "Books to Read When You're Bored of Netflix"... a phenomena that he wouldn't have thought possible a few months ago but now knows, from experience, that such a thing actually exists. Eight pieces of fiction spanning styles and genres written by a Giller finalist, a famous screen play writer, a Giller runner up, a provocateur, a video essayist, a trouble maker and the author of the amazing, incomparable and ground ...making "Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrel". His "Just in Case I End Up in Quarantine" stack. A description of each book is attached to each photo. Happy reading!

Today, the Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist was announced, celebrating five Canadian fiction writers and the 27th edition of the Prize! All of these amazing works are available in stores and online at Perfect Books. Perhaps we can make some bets on who the next winner will be. Giller Prize jury citations are in each corresponding photo.

Has anyone watched Enola Holmes on Netflix? Come check out the first installment of Nancy Springer’s popular series of a mystery solving teenaged girl, and sister of the famous Sherlock Holmes.

Hey Readers! There are many wonderful new releases in fiction from so many well-loved authors at our store right now. From Yaa Gyasi's new "Transcendent Kindom" to Ken Follet's new "The Evening and Morning" there is certainly something for anyone to escape into this fall. Here are just a few straight from our shelves. Book descriptions are in each corresponding photo :) #shoplocal

Today at Perfect Books we are excited for the release of Katherine Battersby’s new children’s book Perfect Pigeons. This book is a great tale for kids during these uncertain COVID times by encouraging confidence and positive self-esteem through the story of one plucky pigeon. Available in store and online today!

Hello Readers! We are happy to announce that we will once again be open on Sundays as of September 27th from 11-5. While you’re here, come check out the selection of books from Ottawa’s Writers Festival. Recharge your imagination with selected works by gifted writers who guide us in our exploration of the world! Since we’re officially in the second wave, we will ask you to please wear a mask and use sanitizer upon entry. There will be a maximum of 5 people in the store at o...nce for social distancing. Stay safe and we’ll see you this weekend! #StaySafe

HI Everyone! Thank you for your amazing patience. We are happy to announce we are now open for browsing starting tomorrow morning. Our store hours, for the next little while, will be from 10-6 Monday through Saturday and closed Sundays for cleaning. We will be wearing masks in the shop and ask that you do as well. We have plenty of hand sanitizer which we request you use on entry and will have gloves available if you feel you would like a pair for browsing. We will be limit...ing the number of people in the store to four because of our limited size but looking forward to seeing you again! As well, contactless pick ups and deliveries of web orders will continue for as long as you all need us to do this to keep you safe. See you soon!

My Grandmother, (So Granny-of-the-evening-part-time-book-monkey) is a huge part of the reason I ever learned how to read. She was a teacher and, despite having to do it all the time for work, had all the time in the world to sit down with me on her couch and work our way through whatever book I was fighting my way through at the time. I once asked her, when I was a teenager, why she never EVER read fiction. I had never seen her with a detective novel. I had never seen her wi...th a romance or even one of the classics. She told me, with an earnest I took for battyness at the time that she had no interest. Why, she asked, would I read some made up thing when people live such fascinating lives? My Gran's Jam was Biographies... a thing that, only recently, I've been coming to appreciate having been through one on the Romanovs and one on Rasputin in the last month alone. To that end, here are some of the fantastic biographies we have stocked up in the shelf... Some tunes with Alicia Keyes, some art with Andy Warhol, some controversy with Woody Allen and Andre the Giant because why the heck not! Descriptions attached to the photos...

A friend once posited that "Living through history really, really sucks... but it sure is great to read about it a few years later to see how well we all did." I cannot disagree as we wander back in forth in our living rooms passing these historic times. To that end, I (Chris The Part-Time Evening Book Monkey) have collated some of the good historical fiction for you to peruse to help pass the time... Descriptions attached to each photo.

It has been brought to my (Chris-the-evening-book-monkey)'s attention that not everyone goes for escapism in times of indecision and challenge; that some use moments like this to learn all that they can about the world around them. Knowledge, often being equated with power, makes people feel better in times of change. That makes a lot of sense. So, today, some of my favourite reads from our Politics section. I avoided things that DIRECTLY deal with Mr Trump, with the exception of Naomi Klein who I recommend to everyone, always, because I am quite the little socialist-anarchist activist at heart. Descriptions of each book attached to each photo.